CILIP Ireland Open Day 209 Meg Burke, Head of Membership and Marketing, CILIP

1. Writing for digital:
web, email and social media
Meg Burke
Head of Marketing and Membership
CILIP

2. Christmas at your local library!
• How can we get the word out?
• Website
• Email
• Social media
• How to plan it all so it works together
• After the event

3. Websites

4. Websites

5. Websites

6. Websites – what works?
• Keep it simple
• Pictures are good, but must be relevant
• Keep sentences really short – 20 words maximum
• Break up any long chunks of text into shorter paragraphs
• Call-to-action must be easy to identify and easy to understand
• Update it regularly
• (Some) rules are made to be broken!
• Coco Chanel has some wise words…

7. Email
Good or bad?

8. Email
Good or bad?

9. Email
Good or bad?

10. Email – what works?
• Keep it simple
• Pictures are good, but must be relevant
• Keep sentences really short – 20 words maximum
• Break up any long chunks of text into shorter paragraphs
• Call-to-action must be easy to identify and easy to understand
• Personalise it
• Can someone unsubscribe?
• Is it GDPR compliant?
• Subject line is key
• Test it!

11. Social media
Good or bad?

12. Social media
It was bad. Very, very bad.
(Although people still remember Susan Boyle, and her
album…)

13. Social media
Good or bad?

14. Social media
Good or bad?

15. Social media – what works?
• Keep it simple
• Call-to-action must be easy to identify and easy to understand
• Be friendly, warm and approachable
• Where are your audience? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram?
• Use pictures, video and polls
• Respond to questions or comments on the post
• Use hashtags
• Local influencers
• Instagram stories

16. After the event
• Say thank you and celebrate the event
• Follow-up with an invitation to another event, or another ask about a week later
• If appropriate, survey people to find out how the heard about your event, so you can maximise the impact
of your communications next time
• Enjoy your success!

17. Christmas at your local library!
Write a brief plan for how you’ll publicise your event. Be as creative as you want, and don’t forget to think
first and foremost about your target audience. Go to them, it’s a lot easier than making them come to you!